A common task for a data producer is to figure out which Cofactor ID to use to reference a particular entity that can be described using natural language. Cofactor Search is a service that enables users and software agents to find Cofactor IDs matching keyword-based queries.

Several techniques are used to rank query results inspired by the PageRank algorithm developed at Google but adapted to the semantics and use patterns found in semantic web documents. To discover structured data online and measure the usage of registered IDs, Cofactor employs a network of crawlers and structured data parsers.

Cofactor Search includes both a browser interface and a RESTful API for running the search programmatically.